Tongan Queen Visits Utah

During a six-day visit to Utah, Tongan Queen Halaevalu Mata‘aho met with members of the First Presidency, toured many sites of interest, and spoke at several gatherings.

During her visit with President Gordon B. Hinckley and President Thomas S. Monson, counselors in the First Presidency, Queen Mata‘aho accepted a statue depicting a young child walking from one parent to another.

Family and religion are important to the Tongan people, the queen observed at a news conference held December 3. “If you believe in the Lord, no matter what your color or denomination, when you believe in one true God, people should be one big family.”

Arriving on December 2, Queen Mata‘aho was met at the airport by Elder Russell M. Nelson of the Quorum of the Twelve and Elder John H. Groberg of the Seventy. While visiting in Tonga during the Church’s 1991 centennial celebrations, Elder Nelson had invited the queen to visit Utah.

In addition to meeting with the First Presidency and holding a press conference, Queen Mata‘aho toured Brigham Young University campus, delivered an address on the role of women in Tonga at the BYU Kennedy Center for International Studies, visited the Missionary Training Center and the Primary Children’s Medical Center, and spoke at a Tongan community fireside.